Part Six

Emma Skyler did arrive soon after the doctor. She had brought with her a duffel bag that seemed to burst at the opening from the amount of contents within. She placed it on the bed in front of Mary. Emma said that she had made up the contents roughly less than a year ago sometime after it was known that Mary would not wake up for a while. For the next several months, the bag had been kept inside this room by Emma in case Mary did wake up she would have her things ready. After several months and with Mary not waking yet, Emma reluctantly took the bag home with her. She admitted it was her last glimmer of hope.

"Of course, as soon as I took it home, you wake up," she joked.

She said it was full of Mary's favorite clothes and possessions. Mary started rummaging through and found a pair of faded blue jeans with all sorts of holes down the legs. There were several undergarments and T-shirts. The shirts were what really caught her attention. She held one up that had a particular design.

"I think this shirt has every color known to Man on it," she commented.

Emma looked over at it as she folded the waded up jeans that Mary tossed aside. "Oh, that's one of your tie-dyes."

"Uh huh. Can we turn the color volume down a little?" She flipped the shirt over and found some lettering in such an intricate style that she had a hard time reading it. "What is...grateful...dead?"

"Oh, my. You must really be missing if you can't remember The Dead. It's only your favorite band. Don't you remember your tour with Terry and Anne in '81? You gals went half way across the country following that tour. You must have seen twenty shows. And when you found a bootleg years later of one of the shows you were at...why, I never heard the end of it. I put that bootleg copy in the bag there with your Walkman, by the way."

Mary dug through clothes to the bottom of the bag to find a small device with earplugs attached to a wire. Under that were a few silver round, flat discs in cases. The earplugs were actually ear speakers and she figured they were for music. She thought of what a fascinating device that would be. "I'll listen to them later. Thanks for all of this."

"It's about time it gets used."

A dark-skinned nurse came in with a small tray of vials and needles with the intention of taking blood. Emma announced her exit but before she left, she said she would come back later tonight.

"Already heard they might release me tonight?" surmised Mara.

Emma shook her head in mock annoyance. "Now, darlin', only a mother should even have instincts like that."

"Good thing I am one," answered Mara.

Emma nodded and said her farewell and the nurse proceeded to take blood. She had anticipated a sharp pain whenever a needle was involved, but this time it was only a small prick of pressure. The nurse finished in no time and Mary changed into the jeans and the Dead shirt she held earlier. She had some time before the meeting so she pulled out the device and the discs. She flipped the opening to the port and entered the disc. She put the mini ear speakers over her ear and found the button marked "play". She started listening. It was basic to her at first. She could never know for a fact, but she had a feeling that Mara was not much of a music fan. If she was at any time, it would have been because it was required of her to become one. Soon the instruments were in synch with the one stringed instrument being dominant. She found she could really listen to this. The song seemed to keep going on forever and she never looked at the chrono while listening to the addictive music. That proved almost a mistake as she kept to listening and just happened to see the chrono just in time to see that she had fifteen minutes before meeting the new doctor.

She shut off the device, placed it on the dresser, and stood up quickly to head to the South conference room. She had memorized the layout from her earlier excursion outside her room and knew exactly where to go.

Soon, she approached the double doors to the room and saw that one was slightly open. She thought she could hear a voice reverberating inside that sounded strangely familiar. She reached the door and slowly knocked.

Immediately, the voice stopped and another deeper voice replaced it. "Come hither!"

She opened the door to see an oblong table set in the middle of a room that barely could fit it inside. Alongside the table were many cushioned chairs. At the far end of the table sat a slightly hefty man of his early sixties. He had short gray-brown hair and wore thick round spectacles. Upon seeing her, the man stood up quickly, obviously in surprise. "Mary! Is that you?"

"Only in flesh," she answered.

"Come in. I thought you'd be in a wheelchair or have someone bring you down."

"No, I can walk on my own pretty well."

"I can see that. Rumors of your paralysis are greatly exaggerated, eh?"

"Uh, I guess."

He shook his head. "I'm just paraphrasing Twain. Never mind. Please sit down. I am so glad to see you. We feared the worst."

She sat in the cushioned chair adjacent to his and she looked down at the papers in a neat pile inside a folder before him on the table. Also in front of him was a smaller rectangular device that she was curious about. She noted the design.

"Ok. Now, Mary. Do you remember me?"

Mara smirked and sniffed. "And you're supposed to be the doctor?"

The man chuckled. "Of course. I will proceed. My name is Dr. Markham. I treated Mary a few years ago after her divorce for Depression. I know her history and her personality, so I can tell you with all professional honesty, that Mary would have never answered me in such a disrespectful way."

"I'm sorry. Sometimes I don't know what I'm saying."

"Or why?" She nodded. He went on. "And don't apologize. You don't have to apologize for your personality."

"Even if it's not my own?"

"That's what I intend to find out. Now, I know you've been asked this countless times in the past hours, but I want you to be very honest with me. How are you feeling?"

She sighed. "Physically, I'm fine. Better than fine. Seems I have strength I didn't have before. Mentally, well...it depends on who you're asking."

"With whom am I addressing now?"

"The name that keeps coming up when I'm asked that is Mara Jade Skywalker."

"And you have no memory of Mary Jane Skyler?"

"None."

"You do realize the initials and the name are similar?"

"I noticed."

"And your accent is gone. More defined and clearer now."

Mara considered and asked bluntly, "Was that how Mary sounded before the accident?" She motioned to the device on the table.

"How what sounded?"

"Don't play dumb. That must be some kind of recording device and you were playing a sound clip of Mary speaking, were you not?"

Dr. Markham looked as if he had been caught doing something illegal. He was clearly on edge at that moment, not expecting her to even mention the sound clip.

She thought back to the dream. You will keep people on edge.

Dr. Markham smiled eventually and said, "Yes, that was a recording of a session with Mary Jane Skyler. Impressive display of attention to detail. Another aspect that is very much unlike Mary. Anything else you observed while you entered?"

Mara looked him straight in his eyes. "You use Death Sticks...or, at least, what constitutes as Death Sticks here. You've been fiddling with that pen in your hand as if your life depended on it."

He dropped the pen instantly and replied, "Yes, I take a cigarette occasionally."

Mara tilted her head. "More than occasionally."

"Now, how could you possibly know I was exaggerating?"

Mara was quick to answer, "The inflection in your voice changed pitch when you lied. Plus, you dropped the pen. If it was an occasional habit, you would have dismissed the pen as a nervous tic.

"Very interesting. Anything else?"

"You've been divorced."

"And how did you come by this conclusion?"

She pointed to his hand and mentioned, "You have a circular red mark on the third finger. Right where a ring would have been." She paused and asked, "Still think I'm Mary Jane under here?"

Dr. Markham cleared his throat and answered, "Well, you are certainly Mary Jane in the flesh, which now makes me understand your earlier joke as you came in. You have no memories of your physical self but have all the memories of a total stranger. Dr. Harris said the first word you said after you woke was Ben. Was that in reference to Mary's son, Benjamin?"

She replied, "No. Mara's son was also named Ben."

"Uh huh. And Mary's ex-husband is named Luke, yet you also called for someone named Luke."

"I called for Luke Skywalker. That is Mara's husband, not ex-husband. Besides, why would Mary call for her Luke, of all people?"

"Good point. Yet, you must acknowledge the coincidence."

"I'm not making this up."

"I didn't mean to imply that. I'm only mentioning the fact that Mary's coma scores were so low."

"Explain."

"The Glasgow Coma Test measures how alert a person is when in a coma state. There are several stages. The results should be a 15 when a person is fully alert, though not necessarily active. A score of 3 or below is a total lack of consciousness or a vegetative state. A year ago after the accident, you scored at a 4. Yet, here you are now, fully alert and awake with no paralysis in legs that haven't been used for a long time. You claim to have no knowledge of your previous identity but do admit to being an entirely different woman with an alternate personality."

"It sounds so credible when you tell it," she quipped.

He ignored her remark and said, "As I stated before, I knew Mary. I studied her before the accident. She had been beyond Depression after Luke Wallace divorced her. What he had done to her was a large part of her exclusion from society, but not all of it. Mary lacked confidence all her life. I thought being alone with her son would help cure her out of depression, but he had too much of his father in him. That's what Mary was afraid of. I tried drug therapies and mental exercises for her, and none worked. There were times during a few sessions when I felt Mary could gain the strength to commit suicide. Then the accident happened.

"So, given the current situation, I believe that Mary has somehow made herself hidden and has invented someone with traits totally opposite of her own. An exclusion not from society, but from herself. Enter Mara Jade Skywalker. And you know as well as I do–"

"No! I don't know!" Mara snapped. "That's my point. I don't know anything. I think my name is Mara Jade Skywalker. I think that I am not from here. Hell, I don't even know the name of this planet I'm on."

That made Dr. Markham perk. "What...planet? So, Mara...isn't from Earth?" he asked no believing he had to.

""Earth? That's it? That's the name?" She chuckled. "How original."

Dr. Markham had to rephrase his question. "Mara is from...outer space?"

"Don't be stupid. No one is from outer space; it's a vacuum." She let a beat pass and exclaimed, "How can you just name a planet...Earth? That would be like calling Hoth...Ice. Tatooine would be...Desert." She chuckled to herself.

"Where are those places you mentioned?"

"I don't know. Sometimes strange words pop into my head."

"Maybe they're not so strange to Mara."

"If I know enough to say and pronounce those words, then why don't I know what they are?"

Dr. Markham shrugged. "If I had to make an educated guess without performing any tests, I'd say those words are found in Mara's memory but Mary's brain cannot define them. Disassociation. Very interesting. Something that Dr. Harris also said was that at one point you showed some pain in your thigh where there were no injuries sustained in Mary's accident. Did you feel pain?"

"I thought I did. It almost felt like a sharp sting."

"Like a needle?"

"Yes. Though, I just had some blood taken earlier and it felt nothing like that. This sting almost seemed to have some force behind it."

"As if in anger?"

"Or survival. What do you think that is?"

"A needle sting that was forced in? More than likely a dart. A tranquilizer?"

"Or worse."

He gave a pause before he stated, "I think it is high time you tell me some background on Mara Jade. What can you tell me?"

She took a very long pause to answer. "I don't know where she was originally from. I do know that she lived on a planet called Coruscant. She obviously had a family. But, she hardly had time for them. I get the sense she was a warrior of some kind. Her earlier life consisted of missions. She had some type of high-level training. She could fight in hand to hand combat. She was an expert in weapons. Sometimes I get the feeling that she was...dangerous. For what purpose, I have no clue."

"Spy," he replied quickly.

"You think so?"

"The high level of combat training, weapons knowledge, high attention to detail, along with the hand to hand fighting, which by the way Dr. Harris told me of your demonstration against Mr. Wallace, all suggest a highly secret assassin. You said that was earlier in her life. Maybe before Luke and Ben. Do you know anything about her childhood?"

"I think her childhood was spent training. Maybe to be a killer." She paused and muttered loud enough for the doctor to hear, "I know she never knew her mother."

"That suggests she was either too young to know her before she died, or that she had been taken away from her family at a very early age. Perhaps even as young as a baby."

She didn't hear his last comment. She went back to the dream again. Had the "Emperor" become her father figure? Was he the only family that Mara had known? When did Luke come into the picture? Then another phrase jumped out and screamed at her.

YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER!

She gasped and the doctor asked what happened. She answered back, "Luke...had been a target."

The doctor processed this and muttered, "She fell in love with her mark. My god, Mary, this is becoming more intriguing than the latest Hollywood blockbuster. I think this case is going to be one fascinating study."

"I don't recall being anyone's study before. Of course, that's not saying much. So, what now?"

"I was thinking of trying a different approach. Since your true identity is obscured by an alternate one, we need to dig deep into your psyche to get to Mary."

"How do you do that?"

"Hypnosis," he answered flatly.

She looked confused and replied, "What would my hip have anything to do with it?"

Dr. Markham actually laughed and corrected, "No, no. Hypnosis is where I put you into a trance to get to your subconscious. Therefore, I can find Mary's thoughts." He started looking at a paper in his folder and started writing. "I would like to start immediately. Since you have no physical problems I suspect Dr. Harris will release you today. I will allow you a day for your family tomorrow, but on Friday I'd like for you to come in the early morning. I'm sure you won't remember where my office is." He looked up at her. "On Old Shell road?" She slightly shook her head. "I didn't think so. Your mother would know. And you don't have to worry about insurance this time. I know how Mr. Wallace made Mary's life miserable with that. I plan to make this a case study. This is highly foreign territory."

Mara's sarcasm was in full bloom. "A case study. So, you will gain a high reputation and monetary value at my misery? I feel so honored."

"Please understand...Mara, this situation is unprecedented. It is not for my fame I seek in this. My goal here is the same as yours. To find out the truth. Besides, I believe it was Shakespeare who said in a play, 'Too much to know is to know nought but fame.'"

She stared at him blankly, clearly not understanding the allusion.

He said back to her, "Never mind." He checked one of the papers in the file before him and asked, "Can you come in at eight in the morning on Friday?"

"If I clear my schedule, I'll see what I can do."

The doctor sniffed. "You think this attitude you're in is so much unlike Mary. I had a theory before the accident that there was a strong personality underneath Mary's timid exterior that was waiting to burst out. I believe Mara is that personality."

"You're suggesting Mara and Mary are one and the same. How is it that I have all the memories of one and none of the other?"

"For whatever reason, Mary has chosen to hide from herself. Though, I don't know how a kick in the head by a horse would trigger that. Probably it was just the means she needed to do so. That's what I intend to find out." He made sure he looked her straight in the eye. "I do intend to see through the end to this. I will stop at nothing to find out where Mary is." He paused for the most hairline of seconds before he added, almost muttering to himself, "The timing cannot be any more perfect."

Mara caught it and remarked, "Your practice not going so well?"

He chuckled slightly. "I may have to watch what I say and how I say it around you. It is true I have a reputation for being sort of a maverick in my field. It does not always make me the most popular choice. Anyway, this was just a preliminary meeting. I just wanted to see you after you've been incapacitated for the last year."

"High marks all around?"

"So far. I still don't know how you can walk immediately. Atrophy usually prevents that. It's almost as if...,"he trailed off.

She finished. "As if I was given a new set of muscles?"

"That would be highly improbable. Perhaps we will know more in the future."

"The future is always in motion," she quoted.

"Well said. I will let you go for now. I would like for you to spend some time with your family."

"Hope that doesn't include Luke." She paused and added, "Luke Wallace, that is."

"Even as Mara you can suspect Mr. Wallace's ill nature. Well, that's enough speculation for today. Have a good day tomorrow and I shall see you Friday morning."

"Thank you, doctor."

"Please, call me Steve. I prefer it that way with my patients. More informal and more comfortable that way."

"Ok...Steve."

"Excellent," he said as he sorted his papers, collected the recording device and placed them in an attache case he had placed nearby on the floor. He got up as she did and he shook her hand. "Until next time...Mara."

She nodded and he left her there alone. She slowly made it back up to her room as the thoughts of the meeting's subject swam inside her mind. She arrived at her room and Emma and Dr. Harris were already inside talking amongst themselves. Once she came in, Dr. Harris addressed her. "There she is. The woman of the hour. How did you like Dr. Markham?"

"You mean Steve?"

"Yes, yes, he does so love his informality. Though, he does have his advantages."

"I'm seeing him Friday morning. He's trying something called hiposus."

"Hypnosis. That would not be my choice, but it may just be what this situation calls for." He paused and asked, "So, are you ready to go home now?"

She smiled brightly as she looked over at the similar expression on Emma's face. "Yes. I am."